Lupton Book Discussion: Ch. 5 Community Friendly Church

Lupton had me at “community.”  His view of the local church’s mission is as close to our own articulation of mission as I’ve seen.  A church “of” the community—not a church “in” in the community.  Rev. Howard Brown, senior pastor of Christ Central Church and my beloved colleague, says it this way to his congregation.  “We need to be a gospel virus on our communities—infecting every area of our communities with love, hope, and grace.”  I love this.  And it makes complete sense especially in the strip-mall-ization of the Church in America today. 

I cannot imagine how things would change if our churches became neighborhood churches.  In Charlotte alone there are 700 churches.  The possibilities are endless. 

I do want you to imagine though, how they’d be different.  I’ll give you a few ways our feeble attempts at Christ Central have helped us build love and respect and redemption in our neighborhood.   There is tons more to do but let these examples fuel your imaginations for your own churches.

• When a local art gallery did a tsunami relief, we offered to pay for a tent and let our band play music.
• We volunteered as the set up team for the neighborhood Oktoberfest party.
   
• We open our children’s space as a free gallery for burgeoning artists
  
• We use our relationships with the local theatre to throw a free film festival for community.
  
• We donate monies and resources to efforts in our community to bring compassion to local neighbors.
  
•  We were on the scene and helped find housing for folks who were all kicked out of condemned apartment complex.
  
•  We use local business for everything we can—from coffee to printing to making the Lord’s Supper Table to the bowls we use for baptisms. 
  
• We had Sunday School in the restaurant next door and paid them for use of the space.
  
• Our people use the local YMCA, go to local performances, and eat at local restaurants.
  
• We helped launch the NoDa School of Arts www.nodaschoolofarts.org and give them free office space.
  
• Probably ½ of our people live within 4-5 miles of the church.

Lupton Discussion: Ch. 4 Clothes Closets and Compassion

Lupton returns to the issue of compassion and control in the form of a Clothes Closet flier. 

Read it carefully on page 25 in the book:

He summarizes this flier as an embodiment of this phrase:  Somewhere in the process of ministering the poor became their adversaries.

What is interesting about this is that he tries to offer an explanation.  He says that this kind of deterioration in relationship is perpetuated by not having an interdependent or reciprocal relationship.  “The deepest poverty of all is to have nothing of value to offer in exchange.  Charity that fosters such poverty must be challenged.  We know from 40 years of failed social policy that welfare depletes self-esteem while honorable work produces dignity.  We know that reciprocity builds mutual respect while one-way giving brews contempt.”

He goes on to offer options:  Thrift stores provide clothing and job training.  Benevolence dollars that develop mini-economies within the economy.   Reciprocity. 

In some ways as a board member of Hope for Charlotte, I am deeply excited about how we’ve embodied these things.  Our Jobs for Life program has this as a core identity.  Our Christmas Store offers new toys chosen and bought by guardians—instead of the typical grab bag of presents.  But as I was thinking about our Belmont Home Repair, I am not sure we’ve done a good enough job yet with reciprocal relationships.  We need to do better at making sure—even insisting on people using their gifts to help out in the whole project.  Whether grabbing a hammer, or fixing a meal, or encouraging folks, or helping with administration, or whatever.  Part of any work of compassion and justice must be to find where everyone involved can use their gifts for the benefit of the other.  It is the kingdom way.

Lupton Book Discussion: Ch 3. Serving and Controlling

Serving and Controlling: Chapter 3

In this chapter Lupton delves into one of the most difficult quagmires of bringing compassion and justice to people.  He gives us an anecdote where a person was mistaken for being homeless when she was coming into volunteer at the clothes closet.  “But the damage was done.  The spirit that had moved this lady to get up early in the morning to help clothe others had been wounded. A simple error. Understandable. Unwittingly made.  Irreversible.”

One of the things I love about Bob Lupton is that he doesn’t gloss over these interactions and anecdotes.  He could have blown it off—trying to erase the women’s hurt or pardon the offense by self-talk of business, honest mistakes, and oversensitivity.  He is a humble learner and therefore a humble leader.

But what he’s exposing is a value system that is almost universal.  The Haves are better than the Have Nots.  It is shame to receive in our eyes.  Not just a good and deep humbling but shame.  And we are almost all universally wrong in this assessment.  Subsequently, honest and true reconciliation of the Haves and Have Nots is very rare in most congregations and communities.  There is too much shame, pride, power, and control to move us toward each other.  “When my motivation is to change people, I inadvertently communicate:  Something is wrong with you, but (quite subtly) I am okay.”  People become saviors in their own minds.

As I’ve struggled through this there are a couple of thoughts that help me amid the quagmire. 

First, Jesus seems to value the poor more than the rich.  James admonishes his congregation by asking them: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor.”  Jesus is explicit that he has come for the sick, broken, sinful, and needy.  He says that it is hard for rich people to enter the kingdom.  I’m not sure we can understand the radical nature of this claim.  The demographers prove that its true; when you look at income and church attendance in Charlotte, NC there is an inverse relationship between how much money one makes and how much time one spends in church.  This should strike the Haves to the core.  Giving us/them a posture of humility and learning and receiving from the poor to teach us about the kingdom.  Even though this truth is straight from Jesus, everything in our culture screams at us that it’s not.  Both the Haves and Have Nots are covered with the opposite message.  But we must listen to the powerful whispers of Scripture that teach us differently.  This leads to an interdependency that can bring true trust, love, and respect.

Second, dignity is the goal. We have to be convinced that all bear the image of God and are created with dignity and glory.  We need to “encourage the use of gifts concealed in the unlikeliest among us.”  We need to value the ways the marginalized embody true gifts of faith, determination, insight, and leadership.  We need to hunt for the ways people can use their God-given dignity.  And we have to be proactive—because the ways of the world are cruel and relentless.  It will always devalue anyone different in any way.  Our job is to see and act with kingdom eyes.

See you tomorrow.

 G

Lupton Book Discussion: Ch. 2 What About Root Causes?

Lupton re-tells the miraculous story from John 9 (John 9).  The disciples saw a man born blind and asked their teacher about the root cause of his dilemma.   “Was it him or his parents who sinned? “   Blame.  Whose fault is it?  If something is wrong, someone is to blame.  It’s a simple assessment of life.  Linear, logical, and clean.   And it can be really good.  There is a sense in which his disciples may be longing for justice here.  Let’s find out who’s responsible for this and make them accountable—in real, practical terms.  Biblically speaking, if you cause harm to your neighbor, or your neighbor’s property, you are to bring restoration to the situation.  You fix what you broke. 

The problem is that Jesus doesn’t think that these are the only causal options for pain and suffering in the world.  Brokenness and blindness have a third option.  3″Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. 

In one sense Jesus ignores the causal question all together.  There is not a clean answer to their question.  It doesn’t satisfy our closed system of cause and effect.  And even though we can be sure that Jesus believed that sin has caused all pain and suffering in the world since Adam, he claims a more direct reason for the person’s blindness: The work and glory of God might be revealed in his life.  Less of a cause, more of a purpose.   That through blindness, the beggar and the crowds might see a man redeemed.  That at least one reason for suffering is that God’s redemptive and healing hand might be revealed.

Now such a statement would seem hauntingly unsatisfying—especially for the sufferer—the blind.  But in the end it is not.  The blind beggar realizes that he had been touched by the very hands of God.  The Scriptures say that he believed and worshipped him. 

But Jesus is not done as he actually addresses the issue of justice in this passage.  He says that he has, in fact, come to judge.  For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”   Jesus, the master teacher, flips the miracle into a metaphor—a very serious indictment of the religious folks of his day.  He says that they are blind because they are missing the point of all of life—to enjoy God’s redemptive and restoring work in the world.  To believe and worship. 

This is where Jesus’ upside-down kingdom will blow our minds.  Look, we are reading a book about social justice and compassion for Christians.  It’s addressing some of the absolute pigmy-like attempts at loving our neighbor in the Evangelical church.  But Lupton’s first parable is a parable that re-centers all of our efforts into a Christ-centered worldview.  Jesus’ primary concern was not the beggar’s blindness but the revelation of God’s work.  This seems really odd, even paradoxical considering the first chapter was debunking the notion that evangelism was the highest level of Christian living.  So what’s going on?

As far as I can tell it is this.  Though Lupton believes that we are utterly responsible for loving our neighbors in real, practical, physical ways, these acts are about embodying a Kingdom—the reign of our merciful King.  We saw from his response to his disciples that looking for causal justice was not good enough for His kingdom—liberally providing practical mercy is more important.  But just as clearly we see that acts of compassion and mercy on their own are not good enough either—they need to have as their end a loving “declaration” of Jesus’ redemption of people—whether explicit or implicit.  Just like all acts of evangelism need to be a subset of love of God and neighbor, all acts compassion and justice need to be a subset of love of God and neighbor too.  Jesus cannot be separated from our acts of compassion and justice.  It’s all an embodiment of His Kingdom.  We are to be His hands and His feet—His compassion and His justice.  What we do is for His glory and His glorious reputation as the King of all mercy and justice.

Lupton Book Discussion: Ch. 1 What Does Jesus Say?

Lupton tells of an occasion when he was asked to speak to a major Christian University about issues of compassion and justice. With great rhetorical genius, he asks the question, “What is the number one mandate for the followers of Christ?” After a flurry of answers ranging from evangelism, discipleship, and other parts of the Great Commission, he kept pressing. “What does Jesus say it is?” After several puzzled silences he got the answer.”You should love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” The Great Commandment.

Agreed…at least nervously…by all. And then he asks the real question: “Given Scripture declares this to be our number-one mandate, then what class do we have here on neighboring? I know you have an entire department on evangelism. Who teaches Neighboring 101?”

So Lupton starts prophetically. He’s not asking if the subjects of compassion and justice are to be part of the Christian life, he’s declaring them so, and asking if we are in line with Jesus’ teaching. (This makes sense of the book’s original but less kind title So You Call Yourself a Christian.) Love of neighbor is not an optional mission or a trendy evangelism technique or a do-gooder’s claim to self-righteousness. It’s a high calling and a command from our Lord.

A little later, Lupton deals with one semi-objection from the audience in which someone is making the case that telling someone about Jesus (evangelism) is the ultimate act of love of neighbor. If eternity is at stake then present comfort pales to an eternal heaven or hell. Though he sees the concern-and calls it a good one-he points out that this is an adjustment of Jesus’ teachings. Evangelism-telling someone about the good news of Christ-that he is the savior of sinners-is not the same as love of neighbor. It is a subset. Telling someone about Christ’s atonement for sins is PRECEDED by love of that person. And I think Lupton’s point is that it’s that love of that neighbor’s whole self-not just the eternal state of his soul-that Jesus commands.

So What? What’s this mean for us?
First, we need to ask if we are taking the Bible, and Jesus words to us there, seriously enough. His main complaint against evangelical America is that it’s not biblically or theologically strong enough. They’ve forgotten parts-or have not exercised some of these muscles. Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone as our rule of faith) is one of the great marks and proclamations of the Protestant Reformation. He’s just calling back to the Bible. Frankly, I love this. It’s the only way reformation of the Church will happen.

Second, we need to ask if we have a divided view of humans and the world. Do we believe that people are more truly souls or spirits than they are bodies? And that Earth is a place to avoided or abandoned? If so we have a theological problem. First it diminishes the importance of Jesus’ humanity-the incarnation-which we just celebrated for Christmas. God became man and dwelled with us. Second, it usurps the power of the resurrection. The Bible and the creeds have always taught the resurrection of our bodies. Jesus is said to have a glorified body and that we will have one too if we trust in him. Frankly, God likes earthy things. He made it and he made us-as earthlings. Christians often talk about heaven and get images of chubby-cheeked cherubs resting on clouds. The Bible gives us a picture of the New Heavens and the New Earth (think of some twin city). A city with vibrancy, life, feasts, streets, and buildings…earthy stuff transformed by the King and his Kingdom. If we are just focused on “spiritual” things we are missing what the Kingdom is fully about. The Christian life locates in time and space with real people in a real kingdom with real life issues-awaiting the time and place when God will wipe every real tear from our real eyes. There is no such thing as being so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good-if we have a right view of heaven and people.

Lastly and maybe most importantly Lupton’s comments beg that we ask the question, “Do we love God and neighbor?” If we are honest, the answer is some version of no, or not so much. And here’s where the trick comes in. The love that will transform our neighborhoods is not found in ourselves but in Christ. Our limitations and our rebellion get in the way. And then we find ourselves in need of the kind of love that Christ commands. The good news of the gospel is that He has it for us-in truckloads. And it is from this place of God providing for our neediness that we can provide for the needs of others.

See you tomorrow.
Giorgio

Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life

First Things Introductions:

Hello All. My name is Giorgio Hiatt and I am a pastor in Charlotte, NC and a board member of Hope for Charlotte. Our Executive Director, Jeremy Sorzano has asked me to take us all through a book by Bob Lupton entitled Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life. It’s my privilege to do so.

This first blog entry will be about setting our course giving us a chance to get out our expectations and hopes for the month. I hope you will enjoy and be challenged by the interaction.

Schedule:

In figuring out how to best pursue this I thought short snippets would be best. This way, if anyone misses a few days she can jump right back in. The great thing about this book is that it can be read in bite-size pieces. Each chapter is less than 5 pages…often not more than 3. You will see it is divided in a way that each weekday in January will have at least one blog entry. So puts this in your “favorites” or “feedreader.” Then let’s join in anywhere, catch up later, read ahead, or just linger around the blog and see if we can learn something about the Kingdom of God that Christ has inaugurated.

Date Chapter        Date Chapter
1/3 Intro                  1/21   Ch. 12
1/4 Ch. 1                 1/22   Ch. 13
1/7 Ch. 2                 1/23   Ch. 14
1/8 Ch. 3                 1/24   Ch. 15
1/9 Ch. 4                 1/25   Ch. 16
1/10 Ch. 5               1/26   Ch. 17
1/11 Ch. 6               1/27   Ch. 18
1/14 Ch. 7               1/28   Ch. 19
1/15 Ch. 8               1/29   Appendix
1/16 Ch. 9
1/17 Ch. 10
1/18 Ch. 11

Expectations:

OK, I will do my best to give a short summary of each chapter and then give either anecdotes, comments, and questions that will fuel discussion. I don’t claim expertise in all these areas but will try my best to facilitate ideas and practice that will be helpful to the development of our communities. Please feel free to respond to this entry anytime with suggestions or your own expectations and desires for this month’s reading. Remember that this is our first attempt at anything like this for Hope for Charlotte, so there will probably be plenty of room for improvement.

So here’s to blogging our way toward the beauty of His Kingdom. See you tomorrow.

Giorgio